By Kris Freeman
White House Football

When a late fourth quarter field goal sailed wide left at Chattanooga Notre Dame, the White House Blue Devils were happy to cheer the miss.

One year ago, it was the Blue Devils disheartened by a late kick which couldn't find the uprights. This year, however, White House held on for a 10-7 victory over the Fighting Irish in the first round of the Class 3-A state playoffs, as Blake Pelton's 44-yard field goal hooked hard left to preserve the late rally by the Blue Devils.

Jake Hunter got a chance at redemption for White House, making a career-long 43-yard kick in the third quarter for a 3-0 lead, the same side of the field he missed a similar kick with less than two minutes to go in the 2005 state quarterfinals. Hunter added the final point on the scoreboard in 2006, however, cashing in the point-after when DeMarqus Payne caught a 43-yard screen pass with two minutes to go, giving White House an eventual 10-7 victory.

"We weren't worried about Jake, and if anyone deserved to make a big kick, he did," said White House head coach Jeff Porter, after Hunter missed two field goals in a win over Greenbrier in week 10. "He missed a 43-yarder on the right hash last year and made one on the left hash this year. It was kind of fitting."

White House fit well the role of a big underdog, coming in as the third seed from Region 4-3A, but facing heavy odds with five starters out of the game by the end of the first quarter. The Blue Devils were already without four top players when tailback Justin West left the game with a collarbone injury on the second series.

His replacement, DeMarqus Payne, rushed 19 times for 68 yards, caught three passes for 84 yards and a touchdown, returned one kickoff on the final series for White House, and picked off a Notre Dame pass in the endzone in the fourth quarter. It was indeed a career game for the sophomore, who joined a number of young kids on the field for White House.

The leading tackle was freshman Zach Byrd, a linebacker making his first start, while the field goal for White House was set up by a blocked punt by sophomore Zack Duty, who also had 10 tackles in the game.

"You have to give all the credit to the kids," Porter said. "We had a lot of kids playing hurt and a lot of kids stepping in and playing for the first time this year. I think the longer the game went, you could see the confidence level in our kids grow.

"Injuries can put you in that kind of situation. Adversity can make you or break you and it didn't break our football team tonight. The most important thing is, we get to spend another week together. Our kids just simply refused to give up and that's why we get to play next week."

Notre Dame marched down the field on the first drive of the game, but stalled inside the one yard line. Quarterback Carson Courter fumbled the shotgun snap on fourth and goal, and was blistered by Duty through the middle of the line for a four-yard loss. White House began the field position game by punting the ball away, and eventually the half ended scoreless.

In the third quarter, Pelton was blitzed on the punt attempt and freshman Jeff Edgar was among the wall of Blue Devils with a chance to scoop the block by Duty. White House took over and Hunter nailed a 43-yard field goal to take a 3-0 lead.

In the fourth quarter, Notre Dame mounted a rally and again moved inside the White House 10-yard line. But Payne came up with a huge stop of Courter on a quarterback sweep at the seven yard line, and with a holding penalty the Irish backed up. Courter went to the fade route in the visitor corner of the endzone, and Payne leaped for the interception.

White House punted the ball away and Notre Dame faced an 83-yard drive with under six minutes to play. They answered, and Courter cashed in the touchdown from two yards out to complete the drive. Pelton's kick made it 7-3 with three minutes left.

The Irish kicked off short, however, and Payne returned it to the 44-yard line. Dustin Townsend hit Payne for a first down pass into Notre Dame territory on the opening play of the White House series, and on third down the Blue Devils faced pressure and answered.

Payne caught the short screen and bounced outside, tip-toeing the sideline for a 43-yard touchdown, as he accounted for every yard on the 56-yard scoring drive. Townsend completed 8-of-14 passes for 102 yards and a touchdown in the game. Hunter's kick made it 10-7.

Notre Dame moved into White House territory, but the Blue Devils stopped Courter short on a first down run, and the Irish faced 4th-and-1 and attempted the field goal, which missed, with seven seconds left.

White House kneeled on the football to run out the clock.

Notre Dame led in total offense for the game, 310-194, but had three turnovers while the Blue Devils kept the football 24:14 of the game and never turned it over, but punted seven times.

"People made some key tackles tonight in the game that won't show up in the story, but were tackles that kept the clock running and were big keys," Porter said. "We just played a good three-phase game on offense, defense and special teams.

"The kids found the focus it was going to take to win. All the credit goes to the kids. I think the coaches had the right game plan and the most important thing was the kids believed in it."

Injuries hampered White House, who will be searching for young bodies to step up this week in preparation for a battle at Pearl-Cohn in the second round. West left the game, Michael Moore and Michael Barrett did not play, and Matt Parker made eight tackles, two pass defenses and an interception despite playing three quarters on a sore foot.